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The BBC are reporting: Sexy walks 'keep men off scent'
Quote:
A sexy swing of the hips may attract admiring glances, but it is not a covert sign a woman is ready to breed, according to researchers.
A Queen's University, Ontario, team examined volunteers' walks and the levels of sex hormones in their saliva.
They found those with alluring walks were the furthest away from ovulation.
A British expert said the research, featured by New Scientist magazine, supported the idea women disguise their fertility to deter unsuitable partners.
'Surprising results':
Women give a wide variety of subtle signals to men to advertise the fact that they are ready to conceive and Meghan Provost, the lead researcher, had expected a "sexy", hip-swinging walk to be one of those.
She analysed the gait of female volunteers, showed video clips to 40 men, asking them to rate the attractiveness of the way the women walked, and then matched the results to the hormone tests.
She said the results, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, were so surprising that she had repeated the experiment again with another group of male viewers.
The women who were most fertile at the time of the experiment walked with fewer hip movements and with their knees closer together.
She now thinks the findings tally with other research suggesting that women want to conceal their ovulation from males other than their chosen partner.
Monogamy:
A sexy walk would be too obvious, so women are thought to use changes in smell and facial expressions that can be experienced only at close range.
Ms Provost said: "If women are trying to protect themselves from sexual assault at times of peak fertility, it would make sense for them to advertise attractiveness on a broad scale when they are not fertile."
Dr John Manning, from the University of Central Lancashire, agreed with this theory.
He said it was in a woman's best interests to form a closer attachment to one man to help raise children, rather than to advertise her fertile time and be approached by a larger number of competing males.
He said: "I think that the subtle signs of ovulation are used, in a sense, to promote monogamy.
"If you want to pick up on these, you have to be already living with, or close to, the woman, so this constrains the man into daily attendance on a woman."
Couldn't let this one pass!
"The women ... were ... with their knees closer together."
.... that always works!
"... you have to be already living with, or close to, the woman, so this constrains the man into daily attendance on a woman."
... does this mean, like, getting them cups of tea all the time?
Interesting piece of work. Usually what is termed a 'sexy walk' is akin to Trendelberg's sign and some anthropologists consider this to hold the attention of primal predators who observe the indivual as vulnerable. In some this may trigger a sexual response in others they see physical vulnerability, and others an attraction to protect the individual. All in the eye of the beholder.
To that effect it would be useful to know how the men were selected and whether this screening was taken into consideration.
Research has also shown when males are exposed to ' sexy pictures" (overt or subliminal) they will describe whatever is presented next, no matter how innocent, as being sensual in some way. If the men were given examples of a sexy walk prior to the experiement this may have added bias.
>The women who were most fertile at the time of the experiment walked with fewer hip movements and with their knees closer together.
Not having read the article in full, I can only assume the women least fertile at the time of the experiement were experiencing menstration.
Associated abdominal discomfort may in part account for conscious gait changes as opposed to a subconscious social adjustment. In many primitive socities menstrating women (and married women in non Christian society) would be confined for the time of menses.
So the statement, "it would make sense for them to advertise attractiveness on a broad scale when they are not fertile." would be difficult to support, anthropologically. It may be however infer women from the group of subjects have opted to disguise their physiological circumstance in oder to participate in the study. To that end it would be most informative to be aware of subject selection process and preparation.
toeslayer
in modern society this observation holds some truth.
Interesting, on a side note
Chinese footbinding, i read some years back, that one of the attractions to it, was the fact that it altered the gait so much it toned the pelvic muscles!!! Hence more pleasurable for you males!
Ancient Chinese culture was very egalitarian when it came to the pleasures of sex. Procreation in many Eastern religions, including Hinduism, is thought of as a high form of worship. Prior to Confucius, Chinese beliefs were very humanistic and hightening sexual pleasure was not considered salacious, as it might be seen today. The long term effect of footbinding with gait alteration not only tightened the pelvic floor but also increased the labial folds with hightened sensitivity. The plantar aspect of the arch of the feet also is thought to have become incredibly sensitive. Suffice when using frottage (rubbing) and cupping the member between the arches, both parties were thought to have derived equal sensual pleasure. In ancient China woman had legal rights to be sexually satisfied by their partner. And there were officials designated to investigate all claims. The idea was to encourage procreation.
Couldn't let this one pass!
"The women ... were ... with their knees closer together."
.... that always works!
"... you have to be already living with, or close to, the woman, so this constrains the man into daily attendance on a woman."
... does this mean, like, getting them cups of tea all the time?
Tsk Mark you missed the point completely. The women walked with their knees close together to prevent to hoards of sex starved men from ravishing them in the high street at lunch time!
I honestly don't know how you men resist the urge to throw every fertile, wiggly bummed female to the ground & attempt to procreate immediately.
Personally I think the women in Q were suffering from ''hungry arse'' syndrome.
The thinking behind this piece of personal research (done in the pub by the way to attract as many views as possible) is that during a womans (lady time) BIG pants are the order of the day thereby effecting a comfortable gait pattern.
However during non lady times women wear a plethora of more pleasurable (to the eye not the arse) undergarments: hungry bum = antalgic gait.
Cups of tea! Pher!!!!
Regards,
__________________
:)
twirly
Mandy Brooks
Brooks Podiatry
S64 0DE
Suffering a fondness for odd things.
twirly, thankyou for sharing, i'm learning soooooo much from podiatry-arena ...
my wife, looking over my shoulder, is making noises of approval, muttering "Ahh, she' knows what she's talking about!"
It is however some time (years) since i researched the matter of footbinding and my materials are up in the loft.
I do not, however, remember reading any documents that stated it made sex more pleasurable for the female. I do vaguely recall it being mentioned that it made the female "to be more virgin like" pelvically speaking. Of which, i cannot imagine it being pleasurable.
If you have researched the subject i would be interested in your research materials. So - if you have any can i scrounge them?
Foobinding came to an end with the rise of Communist China and by then the small feet (Lotus feet) were an obvious sign of the privilage classes. Mao's soldiers looked to the feet to identify the enemies of the State. There are communities of older people with bond feet in rural areas who live a reasonably normal life having worked as laborours all their adult life. When the Protestant misionaries like, Gladys Ailwood discovered footbinding was taking place, prior to the Second World War they tried to stop the practice and unbound the feet, condeming many women to a life of misery. These are the ladies frequently described in Chinese literature being acarried around on the backs of their relatives.
Neither the religous organisations nor the Communist approved of the reasons for sexual reasons for footbinding and subsequently played down this aspect. The Western World were privvy to the story of the little Empress born with club feet (probably a myth) by way of explanation, and the Communists contented themself with footbinding as a clear indication of "Western" decadence. Subsequently with both organisations in total denial the literature of the period and immediately after, promulgates myth .
Recently however the Communists have realised the importance of the social history of their diverse culture and opened up more to closer scrutiny the habit of footbinding. Beverley Jackson is an investigative journalist and author from California who has written a series of books on the subject in recent years.
William Rossi in his brilliantly toe curlingly funny book the Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe also gives a chapter over to footbinding with many other references.
My academic interest relates to the psycho-social aspects of shoe design in the Middle Ages during syphilis epidemics. I am keen to associate shoes/feet with safe sex and hence look for evidence in contempory shoe design and shoe wearing habits.
I have a paper published in the UK podiatry journal specifically on footbinding and another on long toed shoes. Over the years I have spoken on related topics at various international conferences. Sadly pods are less interested in the topic, (well I have never been invited to a Pod Conference) and I usually address fashion conferences and sexology conventions.
You may like to have a look at the poster on long toed shoes which is the occidental half of shoes for sex . The key time in history is the 11th century when mens shoes in Europe got longer and women's feet in China got smaller. My hypothesis follows the logic it was caused by the presence of epidemics caused sexually transmitted disease.
I considered doing a literature review of Footbinding for my dissertation 6 years ago but was advised against it due to the lack of published accredited works. I did quite a bit of reading around the area (obviously not nearly as much as you!)
I ended up doing a extended (very extended) literature review on "Evolution of the foot", entitled "From Grasp to Ground". It took me and world and a day to write what i call a "bible". But it paid off in the end and boy was it interesting.
I will certainly check out those resources you have mentioned.
Sexy walks 'keep men off scent'
Linear Mode
